Prompt: describe a technology experience you had this week

Description I had the pleasure to attend the Ohio eTech conference in Columbus on Monday and Tuesday.

Impact I was exposed to a lot of technology; both familiar and new technologies. The conference provided opportunities to speak with "like-minded" teachers and share technology experiences good and bad. Additionally it provided opportunities to learn from various presenters and their experiences on successfully using technology in the classroom. I also found good information from the vendors present; they helped to clarify some of the problems I had with equipment we currently have, also I learned about features that exist in some of our software subscriptions that I did not know were available.

Intent As I study and "play" more with the information I have acquired, I plan to not only incorporated it into my own teaching but to pass it along to the other teachers in my school. It seems that with teachers' already busy schedules they really don't have the time to incorporate the technologies into their classroom; many don't want to take the time to learn (teach themselves) the technology and they are not given adequate training. So my plan is to provide my co-workers a periodic (once or twice a month) e-mail which will have only one or two tips to try. These tips may be from simply giving good website links or articles to showing step-by-step how to perform an operation in a program (such as inserting video into a powerpoint). In addition I may also set-up a wiki page which will compile all of the tips; in addition to provide a place for the other teachers to share their own tips. By committing myself to this project not only will I help to educate/train the other teachers it will force me to explore different technologies myself.

I like your idea to send out tips....this would be great for your field experience in Technology Leadership! Make sure to talk to them about TPACK and the importance of thinking about pedagogy and content! Dr. Ward